


Good Ol' College Days

by Isis_McGee



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Drunken Kissing, F/F, Fraternities & Sororities, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2833862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isis_McGee/pseuds/Isis_McGee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bela Talbot expects her senior year as her sorority' president to go off without a hitch, Kappa coming out on top of everything. When they don't, Bela wants to try to make Pi Phi Jo Harvelle's life a little harder. Until she decides otherwise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Ol' College Days

**Author's Note:**

> None of the behavior in this fic is meant as an insult toward Greek life (of which, I am an alumna), or the two organizations used. They were chosen because the two are known occasionally to have rivalries throughout universities nation-wide. I have the utmost respect for both organizations.

Bela Talbot, despite the fact that she didn’t play particularly well with others, had her eye on the presidency of the school’s most well connected sorority since she’d received her acceptance letter to the university. She’d spent two and a half years molding herself into the perfect student and the perfect member, holding council positions as soon as she could and making alumnae connections as often as possible and she’d acted graciously when she’d been elected President of Kappa Kappa Gamma even though she’d never doubted for a second that it would be her. Bela knew how to get things done and had made herself nearly indispensable to the chapter. Spring semester of junior year, her first as president, had gone smoothly and without a hitch; Kappa had won Greek Week and held the highest GPA both and Bela was riding high on  the fact that she’d be headed to the organization’s national convention in the summer with those accomplishments under her belt. So when she returned to school in the fall, she had no idea how different things would be.

They had competition.

They always had, Bela reasoned, because that was the nature of Greek Life, but not like this. They’d been on top so long they’d forgotten that they’d even ever considered another chapter a rival, but when recruitment was done and they looked at the numbers, they’d been beaten. More women had pledged Pi Beta Phi than they had in years and they’d beaten everyone’s numbers. The whole Kappa house watched the newest members of their renewed rival march into the house directly across the street laughing and smiling with envy before they remembered how grateful they were for their own new members.

Bela tried not to let it affect her, have no lasting effect on how she would run the chapter, but she took note of who Pi Phi’s recruitment chair was: a junior by the name of Jo Harvelle. She didn’t want to be petty, but if she could, she’d take the girl down a notch or two.

It seemed like she’d get the chance when Bela walked into the first day of her last gen-ed requirement and saw that the slim blond girl one of her sisters had pointed out as Jo was there. Making sure that she was the head of the class by miles and shooting down every bad idea Jo may have during the semester seemed like a fair way to handle the situation for Bela and she smirked when she took a seat thinking about it. She rolled her eyes as a few more people filtered in, almost all of them wearing football t-shirts and Bela prepared to have a lot of ideas to shoot down. She saw Jo smile and say ‘hey, Walker” to one of them and pursed her lips. Bela had little time for girls who cared about the football players who weren’t going anywhere other than college ball. It seemed as though she would have no use for Jo Harvelle.

Within the next few weeks that feeling left, but only because the use she found for her was to argue with her. Jo, despite her apparent friendliness with the football players in the class, was not an idiot, at least not when it came to films they viewed in an introduction to film for non-majors course. Bela rarely agreed with her‒ because it was not valid not to watch and study the technical aspects of _Birth of a Nation_ for the fact that it was incredibly racist, and there was no way that David Fincher deserved that much credit for _Fight Club_ ‒ but Jo made fair points in the arguments. Many class discussions turned into the rest of the students watching Bela and Jo volley ideas about miniscule parts of movies that even the professor didn’t want to jump in on because they got so barbed. Most of the time, Bela would get the last word, and the hour would be done and she would smirk when she gathered her books and walked out, able to ignore Jo’s frustrated demands that they weren’t finished.

Half way through the semester, after a discussion that, single-handedly thanks to Jo and Bela, turned into a particularly heated debate about whether teen movies that had their basis in other fictions should ever even be compared to the source material, Bela couldn’t though.

“You’re only saying no because you’re an absolute snob and god forbid anyone remind you that your precious Brit Shakespeare was just a commoner who wrote about teenagers making bad decisions and made dick jokes! He woulda loved _Ten Things I Hate About You_ and I’m sorry your prim and proper upbringing won’t let you see that!”

Bela’s jaw dropped; they’ve never gotten personal in their arguments.

“Okay,” Professor Shurley stuttered out. “Well, it looks like that’s all the time we have for today.  Remember to read chapter 5 in the book for next class.” He was the first one out the door. The rest of the class save Bela and Jo weren’t far behind him.  

“How dare you‒” Bela started off as Jo was shoving her books into her bag. Jo slammed her bag down and looked up with a huff.

“Are you kidding me?” Jo stopped for a second and looked at Bela only to scoff. She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. “No, you’re not, of course you’re not.”  Jo straightened so she was facing Bela completely and went on. “You have had a problem with me from day one that we met. You’ve argued with every single thing I’ve said in this class, and I don’t know why. So why don’t you enlighten me to exactly what the hell your problem with me is?”

“I’ve argued with you because I don’t agree with you is all.”

Jo snorted. “Don’t give me that crap. You’ve shot down shit that no one in the world would disagree with.” Jo’s voice was rising and it was clear that she was not ready to back down from this fight at all. “All I can think is that this is some stupid crap about the fact that we’re the only house who got more members than you did at recruitment time. So I’m sorry if ‘visa visa mastercard’ didn’t come out on top this year‒”

“Excuse me?” Bela interrupted, her blood boiling.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jo mocked, “does little miss perfect prefer ‘daddy daddy please?’”

Bela was crowded into Jo’s space in a split second. Her voice was deadly cold. “First of all, how dare you insult the integrity of my organization. And second of all, you ought to keep your mouth shut about things you know nothing of.”

“Did I strike a nerve there?” Jo asked, unafraid. “Mommy and daddy not send you the allowance you asked for this week?”

“Considering my parents have been dead for nearly ten years and I wouldn’t have asked them for a damn thing even before then, no, that’s not it at all,” Bela snapped. Her hands were curled into fists and she was shaking and she could not believe what had just come out of her mouth. She’d barely told anyone about her parents in her whole time at school. Jo looked ashen at Bela’s admission. Bela stepped back out of Jo’s space. The tension that has been building up left the room completely, leaving them feeling awkward. They were both silent for a moment.

“Look, I didn’t know,” Jo said quietly.

“Hardly anyone does,” Bela pointed out flatly.

“I’m still sorry I said all that then. I was just going on Kappa’s reputation, on your reputation really, and to be fair, you have been a bitch to me.”

“It’s a cruel reputation to give a whole group of women,” Bela responded, ignoring the last part of what Jo had said. “We’re all still just college students.”

“Don’t you guys have like three separate daughters of CEOs in your chapter?”

“Only one,” Bela corrected. Then she shrugged. “And Amber Lacroix drinks the same shitty beer as the rest of us.”

Jo laughed a little. The two lapsed into silence again. Still, neither one made a move toward the door to leave. Jo cleared her throat.

“If it means anything, I lost my dad when I was young too. Still miss him all the time.” Jo was digging her toe into the linoleum but looking Bela in the eye. She made a noncommittal noise. “So, sorry about what I said.”

“I don’t miss mine at all. And you said that already.”

“I know,” Jo said, visibly reigning in the annoyance she felt and ignoring the first part of what Bela said. “I thought I’d say it again.”

“There’s no need to,” Bela told her. Jo pressed her tongue to the inside of her lip to keep from snapping. She breathed heavily through her nose.

“Okay, then I’m going to go. Maybe we won’t have to fight about something next class period?”

“Only if I don’t disagree with you,” Bela said mildly. Jo just blinked at Bela in disbelief and without saying another word, turned on her heel and walked out.

**

Jo didn’t expect much from the next class period, but there was a definite lack of antagonism from Bela. There wasn’t an abundance of friendliness, but Jo would take it.

**

Homecoming week was a frenzy of activity in Greek town.  Bela, when she wasn’t swamped directing freshman with pomping and lending her eye to making banners and coordinating things with their paired fraternity, could see the flurry of preparations going on with both panic and laughter alternatively at the Pi Phi house across the street.  She knew that the Kappa house must have looked the same. She did wonder if she looked as though she was having as much fun as Jo did whenever Bela caught a glimpse of her. She felt a stab of jealousy that took her by surprise, but it dissipated when Jo met Bela’s gaze through the crowd of women and gave a hesitant smile and wave. Bela’s mouth twitched into a smile before she knew it and then she was turning away to tell Tracy Bell that she needed to use the dark blue tissue paper, not the light.  At that moment there was a crash as one of the sides to their under construction float fell to the ground and Bela was too worried about her own chapter to even look at the Pi Phi house for the rest of the night.

In fact, all Bela could concentrate on for the rest of the week was her classes and making sure she and everyone else knew every step for their dance. It wasn’t even until Saturday afternoon when tailgating had started for the homecoming game that Bela felt herself able to relax.

“This is our last homecoming as actives,” Ruby, Bela’s one-time roommate in the house, pointed out as the two of them watched across the parking lot as a few boys from ATO nearly singed off their eyebrows trying to light a mini-grill.

“Thank god,” Bela breathed. “I’ll never have to pretend to care about the outcome of an American football game again.”

Ruby laughed and nudged Bela. “Don’t pretend you don’t love it all a little after four years.” Bela just pursed her lips shut and rolled her eyes, but Ruby nudged her again with a “come on.”

Bela sighed, but she looked at Ruby sidelong and nodded a little.

“Knew it.”

“I won’t miss building a damn float though.”

“Here, here,” Ruby agreed. She held out her beer can and waited for Bela to clink hers against it. They smiled at each other, and at the crowd in the lot enjoying the game before taking a drink. Bela grinned wryly to herself; there were so many things that she would miss about school and she knew it, but at that moment she didn’t want to think about it at all and she knew most other seniors wouldn’t want to either. So, they would drink.

**

And they did. But so did the juniors and the sophomores and the freshman; the entirety of campus seemed to be in the swing of partying that night after the football team’d won their game.

Bela, if asked, would say she wasn’t drunk at all. It would be a lie, but it would hardly be the worst one she’d ever told and she wasn’t drunk enough that some people wouldn’t believe her. She was, however, drunk enough to physically run into Jo as she made her way through the frat house she was in at the moment.

“Hey, watch it,” Jo said before she turned around. She slurred just the tiniest bit, but Bela didn’t notice. “Oh, it’s you, hey.”

“Sorry,” Bela said. Any other time she would have left it at that. “Congratulations, by the way.”

Jo raised an eyebrow and took a sip of whatever was in her cup. “On what?”

“On Pi Phi’s place for homecoming.”

Jo snorted. “You’re only saying that because Kappa and Theta Delta Chi won and we got second.”

“Maybe,” Bela smiled. Jo smiled back. They stood just looking at each other a moment before Jo took another drink.

“I’m glad we’re not at each other’s throats anymore.”

“Oh?” Bela sipped. “Why’s that?”

Jo shrugged. “I don’t wanna be at anybody’s throat. Not like that.”

“There’s a good way to be?” Bela asked with a laugh. Jo nodded enthusiastically, a grin turning leering. Bela laughed harder. “Oh, of course.”

“Are you drunk?”

“What? No‒”

“Because you seem a lot nicer right now. It’s…nice,” Jo said.  Bela snorted at that and Jo blushed. “I mean, you usually sort of come off as the ice queen of everything, above all of us little people who have to try at things.”

The party was loud, music thumping bass and laughter and shouts, but it suddenly seemed quiet to the two of them. Bela shifted on her feet and turned her cup in her hands. She didn’t look at Jo.   

“God, I’m sorry, I’m an idiot and I’m kind of drunk. That was mean of me. When we were just starting to not be awful to each other and I really like the idea of you not hating me because you might be an ice queen but you’re really smart and you’re really hot and I clearly should never drink again and I’m going to leave now.”  Bela’s eyes widened as Jo’s face reddened and Jo let out a squeak and moved to duck her way into the crowd so she wouldn’t have to look at Bela.  Bela watched as Jo tried to lose her in the crush of people, but saw her wind her way up the stairs. Bela followed until Jo slipped through an open door into a darkened room. She gave the girl a few moments to herself then opened the door where Jo had shut it and entered.

Jo was sitting on one of the beds, running a hand through her hair and texting someone with the other. She looked up when the door opened and let light into the space. She didn’t get anything out before Bela spoke.

“I do try, you know.” Jo looked up. “In class I tried very hard to piss you off. Make you look stupid. I never did because you’re not of course, but I did try. I tried to hate you.”

“You followed me up here to tell me that?” Jo asked, her shame replaced by incredulity.

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

They were quiet again.

“May I sit?”

“Sure, I guess,” Jo shrugged, scooting over a little so Bela could join her.  Bela did and immediately turned to look at Jo. She’d admit to being a little drunk when the next words came out of her mouth.

“Do you want to snog a bit?”

“What?” Jo demanded, rearing her head back a little in shock.

“Do you want to snog a bit?” Bela repeated, cementing the fact in her mind that she really did want to do that. “You know, make out? Fool around?”

“I know what snog means,” Jo replied quickly. “I meant did you really just ask me that?” Bela nodded. “Why?”

“You think I’m hot, I’ll admit that even though I wanted to hate you, I think you’re attractive. It’d be fun and I don’t really see a downside to it right now, do you?”

“Um, well, no I guess not.”

“Good, then it’s settled,” Bela said. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Jo’s, almost chastely. Jo pulled back.

“You really want to kiss me?” Bela nodded again. Jo considered for a moment and then shrugged with a nod. “Okay then.”

The kiss was a little sloppy, the angle wrong and both of them tasting like alcohol and Bela a little like the cigarette she’d smoked an hour ago, but it was still good.  Neither wanted to stop, so they didn’t, continuing to lick into each other’s mouths and moving from lips to jaws to necks and back up to jaws to earlobes. Bela couldn’t remember the last time she’d just made out with someone and it felt wonderful, so much that she whined only a tiny bit when Jo broke it off.

“I’ve gotta go. My phone’s been ringing for the last two minutes. My friends.”

“Alright,” Bela said, her hand still on Jo’s thigh. Jo looked down to where Bela’s thumb was stroking slow circles against her.

“But raincheck. On the making out. Or anything. Or whatever, I mean,” Jo said with a blush.

“I definitely don’t hate that idea,” Bela told her. “Or you, any more.”

Jo just smiled and was out the door.

 

 

 


End file.
